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The Bombay High Court has raised questions over the responsibility of electorate to ensure their names are on the voters' list instead of putting all the blame on authorities.
In an order earlier this week on a bunch of petitions complaining against deletion of the names in the voters' list during the recent Lok Sabha elections, the court noted that petitioners have emphasised upon the magnitude of deletions and contended that it was indicative of negligence on the part of electoral authorities.
"However, there is no adequate explanation forthcoming from the petitioners, who at least personally, are neither poor nor illiterate, as to the steps adopted by them to verify that their names continue on the electoral rolls or for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls, no sooner draft or final electoral rolls came to be published," a division bench of justices A S Oka and M S Sonak observed in their order.
The order was given on a bunch of petitions filed by several voters, including actor and director Amol Palekar, from Mumbai and Pune complaining that their names were missing from the electoral rolls when they went to cast their votes in Lok Sabha elections.
The court also declined to stay the declaration of results of elections and restoration of names of the deleted voters in the electoral rolls of Mumbai and Pune constituencies, saying there was no explanation from the electorates as to what steps they had taken to verify their names in the lists.
